Louis CK on Gay Marriage

I love his logic, especially when it comes to parents telling their kids about gay men.

“Who’s To Say” — Vanessa Carlton

I’ve been listening to this song on repeat for the last week or so, which I don’t normally do with any song.  Whenever I listen to it, I imagine it as a music video that goes along the lines of this:

Stand up straight.
Do your trick, turn on the stars;
Jupiter shines so bright when you’re around.

A young guy is at the piano.  He’s lipsynching to the song, singing it.  It’s morning, and everything is oversaturated with whites and yellows, bright colors.  Obviously it’s sunny and it’s morning.

They tell us slow down.
We’re too young, “you need to grow”
Well, speed’s the key,
And they don’t know who we are.

The young guy walks down the street with his boyfriend, while people around him give them looks.  Someone tells them, “you need to grow” and he replies, “Well, speed’s the key.”  They continue walking down the street, content with each other as people look on, ignorant of who they are.

CHORUS:
And who’s to say
We’re not good enough?
Who’s to say
that this is not our love?

The young man sits watching the news on TV.  People are protesting same-sex marriage, holding up signs that say gay people don’t deserve it, that they should go to hell, etc.  Mean things.  He watches as new reporters interview some people, who seem really angry and wave their signs around.  Insert some shots of gay people on the street also protesting, holding hands, in tears.

Mother, don’t tell me friends are the ones that I lose
’cause they bleed before you
and sometimes family are the ones you choose.
It’s too late now,
I hold onto this life I’ve found

The young man sits at a dinner table, talking with his mother.  She scolds him about being in a relationship (“Friends are the ones that [you] lose, ’cause they bleed before you”, “sometimes family are the one s you choose”) while he tries to reason with her (“It’s too late now, I hold onto this life I’ve found”).  The camera dips below the table and he’s holding hands with his boyfriend, who is giving him strength even though he’s not there.

And who’s to say we won’t burn it out?
Who’s to say we won’t sink in doubt?
Who’s to say we won’t fade to grey?
Who are they anyway
anyway, they don’t know.

He keeps reasoning with his mother — not in an angry, “why don’t you understand me?!” teenager way, but in a “Well, mom, who’s to say?”  Intercut this with more shots of him and his boyfriend with saturated background, sunlight pouring around them as they lean in with closed eyes and also intercut with more images from the TV of couples holding hands, protesting their right to marry.

And you say we’re too young but maybe you’re too old to remember,
And I try to pretend but I just feel it when we’re together.
And if you don’t believe me you never really knew us.
You never really knew.

The young man at the dinner table still, telling his parents bluntly how they don’t remember what it is like to be young and in love, as they only stare back at him.  At “You never really knew”, they get up from the table and walk away from him.  The camera pulls back as they leave, leaving him sitting all alone at the table.  Fade to black.

You and I, packing up my room
We feel alright.
But we’re not welcome
Soon, we’ll be driving
’cause they don’t know who we are.

The couple pack up his room.  There are slight moments when they have a laugh but they more or less pack without any emotion.  It’s not really a day to be happy nor sad.  Bittersweet.  The parents watch from the doorway, trying to hide their disappointment and also sadness at watching their son leave.  The young man picks up a picture frame of him and his family.  At “but we’re not welcome”, he turns to his parents in the doorway and puts the picture back down, not packing it.

At “soon, we’ll be driving”, the couple drive away from the house as it gets smaller and smaller in the mirror.

Who’s to say we won’t stay together?
Who’s to say we aren’t getting stronger?
Who’s to say I can’t live without you?
Who are they anyway?
Anyway, they don’t know.

Intercut with flashfowards of the couple moving in to their new place, more with the protest on television, and the couple with the light around them.  At “I can’t live without you” they’re both in tuxedos, getting married.  He lipsynchs to his boyfriend the line, which is also cut with the young man at the dinner table again, telling his parents who they are for telling him otherwise.

And they say we’re too young but maybe you’re too old to remember
And I try to pretend but I just feel it when we’re together
Who’s to say?
Who’s to say?
Who are they anyway?

Intercut more scenes with people at the protest saying, “maybe you’re too old to remember”, and “I just feel it when we’re together” with the couple in the car, driving to their future, as well as the wedding.  At the “Who’s to say?”, the young man asks his parents, his husband at their wedding, to the camera at the protest on tv, and lastly, with the light around them.  At “Who are they anyway?” the young guy looks directly into the camera and mouths the words.

Stand up boy,
I shine so bright when you’re around.

Back to the first scene, where it’s morning and the young man is playing piano and singing.  His boyfriend (not yet husband) comes into the room, smiling.  The young man stops playing and smiles back.  He gets up from the piano, walks over to him and kisses him.

THE END!

Anyway, that’s roughly what I think about whenever I hear this song.  I sometimes think about how awesome it would be to see this made into a music video and then I think that I should be the one to do it since I’m sort of a director (reluctantly) but it’s just too much work, I think.  Also, something like this would require a budget, of which I have none.  Oh, I forgot to mention that whenever I hear this and think about the story, it makes me cry.  I think there’s a good idea behind anything if it can make me cry…

Reading about things makes me angry

Really, I just feel kinda sick.  Not flu sick but throwing up sick.  I wonder if it has something to do with the potential high amount of radiation this computer is giving off… or if it’s because I was just typing in a comment on a poll about gay marriage.  Nowadays, I tend to stay away from debates like these because it only infuriates me after reading some absolutely ridiculous things people have to say and okay, yeah, I could’ve avoided it this time too, but one of my friends had done this poll thing on Yahoo called “Ask America”; basically there are numerous questions ranging from serious ones like “Should we repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell?” to who-gives-a-crap “Does Sarah Palin’s short messages on twitter affect something something?” (I stopped reading after Sarah Palin and twitter).

Perhaps I am naive in believing the majority of Americans do in fact want same-sex marriage.  I guess that’s why I was surprised why only 53% of people supported it while 47% were opposed.  And of course, I just had to read the comments, which included one particularly stupid one from one woman (maybe girl, I don’t know) who claimed she had “nothing against gays… only when it comes to relationships”.

Uh… what the fuck?  I don’t understand people who say things like that.  It’s easier to understand completely moronic Republican right-wingers who are obviously homophobic and therefore don’t want to see gay people married.  But it becomes something confusing, at least to me, when someone who claims to have no resentment and ill feelings for gay people to be against their relationship.  Who the hell are you to tell them who they can or cannot marry?  How can you be so contradictory?  Those people I don’t understand.

Anyway, I could’ve just let her idiotic comment speak for itself but then she went on to say, “it goes against my religion”.

Ha!  Oh, the old religion argument.  Well, of course it does.  I’m sure pre-marital sex goes against your religion too but hey, I don’t see you torturing yourself over it.  She was obviously unaware at how oppressive women are portrayed in the bible — they get stoned and abused for the most ridiculous things and yet we still don’t believe in that (well, Western culture anyway).  We don’t own slaves but that goes against your religion so what about that?  If you can pick and choose what you want to believe in and what you apply to your own life, why can’t you do that when it comes to gay, loving relationships?  Slavery and oppression — we can’t have any of that, no sir.  But two people who love each other?  “It goes against my religion”.  What a pathetic excuse.  The word pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe it.

So I got angry, naturally (like I’m getting angry now, typing it all up again) and I posted a comment with the 200 characters I was limited to, saying the following:

So you don’t have a problem with gay as long as they aren’t in a relationship? Discrimination is a choice; rather than questioning your religion, you ignorantly choose to accept its belief?

I would’ve posted another scathing comment but I decided not to.  Instead, I posted on the Yes side for gay marriage (there were columns for comments on both sides) and said, “Thank god I live in Canada.”

And yes.  I used a small g.  Mm-hmm! *snaps fingers*

Interestingly enough (or not), 54% of people want to legalize marijuana, which, as you can see, is a higher percentage than gay marriage.   Pot before love!  Wooooot!

Here’s the link to the poll:  http://askamerica.yahoo.com/?issue_id=gaymarriagerights&issue_topic=culturemedia